Devils dump Kings, end six-game slide

Kyle Palmieri scored two goals, and Taylor Hall contributed three assists
Thursday as the visiting New Jersey Devils ended a six-game losing streak with
a 6-3 victory over the Los Angeles Kings.

Travis Zajac, Will Butcher, Nico Hischier and Blake Coleman also collected
goals for New Jersey. The Devils scored more than three goals for the first
time since a 5-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Nov. 21 that was their
last win before Thursday.

Brendan Leipsic, who was claimed off waivers by the Kings from the Vancouver
Canucks on Monday, scored his first goal in two games with his new team.
Adrian Kempe and Kyle Clifford also scored for Los Angeles, which fell to an
NHL-worst 1-16-1 when allowing the first goal in a game.

Palmieri scored two goals for the first time since he had two in each of the
first three games of the season.

Hall now has 11 points (three goals, eight assists) over his past seven games,
but he remains one goal away from 200 in his NHL career.

Drew Doughty notched an assist on Kempe's second-period goal, giving him a
Kings-record 334 assists for a defenseman, passing Rob Blake on the all-time
list. The honor came in Doughty's 799th career game.

Palmieri gave the Devils a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 13:49 of the
opening period with his 13th tally of the year. Less than two minutes later,
Leipsic tied the score 1-1 with his third goal of the season.

Zajac gave the Devils a 2-1 lead a mere 25 seconds into the second period. He
scored his ninth goal unassisted when Kings goalie Jonathan Quick failed to
clear the puck.

After Kempe scored for the Kings at 6:59 of the second period with his fourth,
Palmieri gave the Devils a 3-2 lead at 10:57 when he scored from the left
circle after drifting left and shooting right, catching Quick off balance. It
was Palmieri's 14th goal of the season.

Butcher scored an opportunistic goal at 12:28 of the second period, his
second, when his long-distance shot was redirected into the goal by Kings
defenseman Dion Phaneuf. Clifford cut the Devils' lead to 4-3 when he pounced
on a poor clearance from Devils goalie Keith Kinkaid for his fifth of the
season.

Hischier sealed the victory with just under nine minutes remaining when he
scored his sixth goal of the season. Coleman added an empty-net goal, his
ninth, with eight seconds remaining.

Kinkaid made 29 saves as he improved to 4-0-0 lifetime against the Kings. It
was just the third road victory of the season for New Jersey, which owns the
league's worst road mark.